Berlioz, Cassandra, And the French Operatic Tradition

7/29/2019 Berlioz, Cassandra, And the French Operatic Tradition

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/berlioz-cassandra-and-the-french-operatic-tradition 1/9

Berlioz, Cassandra, and the French Operatic TraditionAuthor(s): Jeffrey LangfordReviewed work(s):Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 62, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1981), pp. 310-317Published by: Oxford University Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/736623 .Accessed: 25/01/2013 18:01

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music

&Letters.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:01:40 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/736623?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





http://www.jstor.org/stable/736623?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup



BERLIOZ, CASSANDRA,AND THE FRENCH

OPERATIC TRADITION

BYJEFFREY LANGFORD

BERLIOZ'SLes Troyens, ritten ver a periodof two years,from1856to 1858, was set to a librettoof the composer's own making,basedon the first, econd and fourthbooks of the Aeneid, n adapting

Virgil's epic poem fortheoperatic stage Berlioz selected,reworkedand inventedscenes as he needed, makingmany alterations n hisprimary source material. One of the most interestingof thesechanges concernsCassandra, who in theAeneid ccupies a positionof decidedly secondaryimportanceas onlyone ofseveral characterswho try o warn the Trojans not to drag theGreek horse into theircity. In Virgil, in fact, t is not Cassandra, but ratherthe Trojanpriest Laoco6n, who is primarily responsible for warning hiscountrymen of impending doom.' Cassandra, by comparison,

figures nlyperipherally n Virgil's account ofthefallofTroy. Herpart consistsofjust a few ines inwhichherforebodings re said tohave gone unheeded by the Trojan people.

In Berlioz's opera, ofcourse, ust theopposite situationobtains:it is Laocoon's exploits that are relegated to a position of lesserimportance when they are communicated to the audience in athird-person report delivered on stage by Aeneas. Cassandra,meanwhile, blossoms into a centralheroine,the dramatic fulcrumaround which thewhole first alfof the opera pivots.This reversal

ofdramatic emphasis,which is partiallyexplainable in termsoftheconventions of prima-donna-orientatednineteenth-centurypera,sheds importantlighton Berlioz's personal operatic technique aswell. One mightask, for nstance,whyBerlioz specifically ingledout forelaboration the characterofCassandra, ifall he needed was

just another heroine to add operatic (musical) interest to amale-dominated epic poem. The Aeneid contains other minorfemale characters that would appear to have been equallyserviceable in thatrespect.Andromache,for nstance,as thewidow

of the Trojan hero Hector, receives much more attention fromVirgil than does Cassandra, and could easily have been developedinto a significant peratic character.But one senses thatforBerlioz

such options were neverofany great concern. Instead, his specificchoice of Cassandra as the firstheroine for this opera was mostlikelydictated by one of the most important diosyncrasiesof his

' Aeneid. i. 32-49.

310








musical style-namely, the uxtaposition of contrastingdramaticmoods through the use of similarly contrastingkinds of music,usually also involvingthe use ofspatial separation (on-stageversusoff-stage ction and music).2 How easily mightwe visualize Berlioz

reading through Book II of the Aeneid and being struck by thedramatic potential of those fewlines that firstbringCassandra toattention:

. . .four times t stalledbeforethe gateway,at the verythreshold;fourtimesthe arms clashed loud inside its belly.Nevertheless, eadless,blinded by frenzy,we press righton and set the inauspiciousmonster nside the sacred fortress. ven

then can Cassandra chantof what will comewith lips the gods had doomed to disbeliefby Trojans.:'

What an effective inale such a scene mightmake!-Cassandra onstage raving about the danger that lurkswithinthe horse,while acrowd ofTrojans, off tage and in the distance, sing a joyous andvictoriousmarch as theymove toward thecity gate with thehorse,oblivious to theurgentpleas of their mad' princess.This, ofcourse,is exactly how Berlioz treated those few lines of verse. In such

references oCassandra, unimportant s theymayhave been to theAeneid, erlioz foundwhat was perhaps theonlyopportunity or hekind of musical development of a powerfullydramatic situationthat most suited his particular operatic style.

Berlioz's expansion of the character of Cassandra also shedssome lighton the character of the composer himself. One cannotdiscount the possibility that Berlioz, reactingmore as a man thanas a musician, mighthave been personallyattracted to the femininequalities that Cassandra represented. Take, for example, the

section ofhis Memoirswhere a reference o the factthat La Prise deTroiehad not yet (1864) been performed eads Berlioz to lament:

Oh mynobleCassandra,myheroic irgin, must hen esignmyself:shall neverhear you-and I am like the youngCoroebus,

Insano assandraencensusmore.)

Again in theMemoirs erlioz lists some ofCassandra's qualities thatmake her worthyof respect:

2An excellent xample s thesuperimpositionftwocontrastingmusical ayers n the'Ride to the Abyss' in Part IV of La Damnation e Faust,one representingaust andMephistopheles alloping ff o rescueMarguerite,heotherdepicting band ofpeasantspraying t a wayside ross.Otherexamplesmay be foutndt thebeginning f thefirstndfourthableaux nBenvenutoellini,hecomicSomarone cene nAct I ofBeatricetBenedictand the opening scene of Part I of Faust.

3 Aeneid,i. 242-7;verse ranslation yAllenMandelbaum,TheAeneidfVirgil,erkeley,1971, ii. 335-43.

4 TheMemoirsfHector erlioz, rans.& ed. David Cairns,London, 1969, p. 490. TheLatinquotation s from eneid,i. 343: On firewithdesperate ove forCassandra' (Cairns'stranslation).

311








. . . fornobleminds nd lovers fgreat rt thegoddesshas names ikeJuliet,Desdemona, . . Dido, Cassandra,Alcestis-namesthat vokeimages of poetic passion,dignity, estraint,elf-sacrifice. .5

The ideal femaleperson, then,seems to have been representedbyany number of characterswho, in Berlioz's mind, all exhibitedthequalities of inner strength, elf-confidence nd an untrammelledspirit. These were the characteristics that fascinated him andattracted him to a particular woman. In a letterof 5 November1859 to the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgensteinhe responded tothe suggestion that he should undertakeyet anothermonumentaloperatic project, this time based on Shakespeare's Antony ndCleopatra; is commentservesfurther o corroboratethehypothesis

that Berlioz responded only to special kinds offemale characters.

Do you believe that I would have the impertinence o distortShakespeare'screationby fashioningn academicCleopatra, ikeaSpanish queen speaking n a scanned and measuredlanguage indeference o theetiquette f her court? . . Oh! no. It is preciselybecausethefierynd capricious gyptianass is theopposite f thesefoolishcreatures hat she so enchantsme.`

Thus, within theconfinesofa story bout thefallof Troy, based

as it was on Greek mythologywhere most mortal women are'amiable and well-behaved, eminentlymoderate, and correct inword and action',7 it is less than likelythatBerlioz could have beenattracted to any of the other female characters. Neither Andro-mache, nor Hecuba, norHelen is depicted in any oftheoral mythsor writtendramatizationsoftheTrojan War as anythingmorethanan ordinary, demure housewife.' Only Cassandra had the fieryspirit and passionate disposition necessary to have arousedBerlioz's interest in the firstplace. She was the natural, even

inevitable, choice fortheheroineofthe first woacts ofLes Troyens.Having once thrust Cassandra to the centre of attention,

however,Berlioz was thenfacedwiththeproblemofhow todisposeof her. Virgil neverhad to deal with thisparticularproblem,withCassandra no more thain minorcharacter in the Aeneid: lthoughhe implies that she died at some time during or after the fall of

'I'roy,,'he is nowhere specificenough about how she died (or aboutthefateofthe Trojan women as a whole) to have been of any helpto Berlioz in planning his libretto.Berlioz's most natural alterna-

tive in this situationmighthave been merelyto adapt foroperaticMemoirs,. 489.

6HectorBerlioz,Briefend dieFiurstinarolvneayn-[littgenstein,d. La Mara, Leipzig,1903, p. 107.

7Walter C. Perry,The 1/tomenf Homer,New York, 1898, p. 51.8 For example, n Homer's liad Andromache egsHectornotto meetAchillesn battle.

His replys: Go thereforeacktoourhouse, nd takeup your wn work, he oom and thedistaff,nd see to t thatyourhandmaidens lytheirwork lso; butthemenmust ee tothefighting'vi. 490-92: The Iliad ofHomer, rans.Richmond Lattimore,Chicago, 1915).

'Aeneid, ii. 417-24.

312








purposes the more common ending based on the writingsof theearlier Greek dramatists, in which Cassandra is taken prisonerbythe Greeks and given as a slave to Agamemnon. The majordifficultywith this approach is that it would not have made an

especially appropriate ending forthe second act of theopera, giventhe heroic nature of the rest of the work. For this reason Berliozslightlyaltered the myth,placing a dagger in Cassandra's handand letting her expire in a blaze of defiant glory just as theonrushing, victorious Greek warriors were about to claim theirhuman spoils of war.

But where did Berlioz get the idea forthis scene if not fromtheAeneid? everal possibilities present themselves. He could perhapshave invented the whole thingcompletelyon his own; or he couldsimplyhave adapted theold operatic traditionoftheself-sacrificingsuicide, common enough in earlier French and Italian Romanticopera, to the special circumstances ofthe Aeneid. n fact,however,he seems to have had a direct model: the tableau in questiondemonstratesa strikingresemblance to the finale ofRossini's first'grand' opera, Le Siegede Corinthe,roduced in Paris on 9 October1826. The dramatic situatiofipresented there s virtually denticalwith that of the second tableau in Act II of Les Troyens.n Rossini'.sopera the Turks have laid siege to the Greek cityofCorinth (in1459), which cannot hold out much longer. The leader of theTurks, Mahomet, was once the lover of the Greek princess,Pamyra, who, afterwavering between her love for Mahomet andher sense ofdutytoward her country, hooses the latter and rejectsMahomet's offer fmarriage and peace. Angered by her decision,Mahomet resolves to take both the city and Pamyra by force. n thefinalscene the Greek men have been defeated,and the women areall gathered together n thecatacombs praying forGod's mercy.As

theTurks are heard victorious n the distance, Pamyra decides thatsuicide is the only honourable solution to her predicament.WhenMahomet enters he finds theprincess, dagger in hand, stealing thefinal victory for herself. The text of Rossini's finale reads asfollows:

Act II scene 7

Pamyra,smene,emmesrecques

PAMYRA: L'heure fataleapproche . . . il fautvaincreou perir!Pour leurDieu, pour a Gr&ce, ls sauront ous mourir.Vouftes aisibles ct sombres,Asile de la mort,Vous qui nous protegez t couvrezde vos ombres,Ah! si le sort des Grecs trahit e noble effort,

"'Text after hepublishedcomplete ibretto y Luigi Balocchi& Alexandre oumet(Paris, 1826). The textfound n thefullorchestralcore Paris, 182[7]) differsn severalminordetails from he ibretto, ut all versions fLe Siege includingn earlier talianoneentitledMaomettoI) seem to agree in the broad outline of theirdramaticaction.

313








Ecroulez-vous . . que parmivos decombresLes vils esclaves du Croissant,Affames e carnage et de crimesEn cherchant eursvictimes,

N'y trouventue du sang.

PriereJusteciel! Ah! ta clemenceEst ma seule esperance!Daigne plaindrema souffrance,Mets un terme nos malheurs.

CHOEUR: Justeciel! que ta clemenceMette un termea nos malheurs.

PAMYRA: Victimevolontaire,Pamyran'a plus rienqui I'attachea la terre!Entourez-moi,mes soeurs.

Scene 8Les Pre'cedens,roupe e Musulmans

CHOEUR DE

MUSULMANS: Frappons,frappons ans plus attendre,Foulons aux pieds leur corps sanglans.

PAMYRA, ISMENE,CHOEUR DE

FEMMES: Ils sont tous mortspour nous defendre.Viens, fiervainqueur,viens, e t'attends.

Scene 9Les Precedens, ahomet

MAHOMET: Que Pamyra soit ma conquete!Qu'on la saisisse!Allez! . . .

PAMYRA: Arrete,Ou ce poignardperce mon sein.

MAHOMET [aveceffroi]:Pamyra! . Ciel! quelle tempete,Autour de nous, mugitsoudain!

On entend'clater'incendie,e mur 'ecroule.

PAMYRA [on voitCorinthembrase'e]:Entends les chantsde notre fete;Vois les flambeauxde notrehymen.

Ensemble

ISMENE, CHOEURDE FEMMES: Chantons,chantons1'hymncau courage!

Un Dieu nous voit du haut des cieux;Pour fuir es fersde l'esclavage,Corinthe expiredans les feux.

PAMYRA: Chantons,chantons1'hymne au courage!Un Dieu nous voit du haut des cieux;Pour fuir es fersde l'esclavage,Ce fersacre reste a mes vocux

314








Elle sefrappe.

MAHOMET: Cruel delire! aveugle rage!Nuit sanglante!desastreaifreux!Pour fuir es fersde l'esclavage,Corintheexpiredans les feux.

CHOEUR DE

MUSULMANS: Heureuxd6lire!0 douce image!Corintheexpiredans les feux;Tous ces malheurs sont notreouvrage,Lc sortenfin omblc nos voeux.

La toile ombe.

The similaritybetween this scene and the one that ends Act IIof Les Troyens s truly remarkable and is surely more thancoincidental. Cassandra and Pamyra (both princesses) findthem-selves in similarly hopeless positions after the defeat of theircountrymen by enemy troops. For each, death becomes thepreferable alternative to the intolerable prospect of a life ofsubjugation. Furthermore, oth heroines take their ives beforethedisbelieving eyes of their would-be captors. Even Cassandra'sdyingprophecyof a future esurrection fTrojan greatness n Italy

looks like a modification fevents thattakeplace inAct III scene 6of Rossini's opera, where, beleaguered and on the verge ofdefeat,the remainingGreek troops gather to receive a blessing of theirbanners fromHieros, theguardian ofthe tombs. Suddenly the oldman is transfixedwith a vision. 'Dieu lui-meme . . . devoile a mesyeux l'avenir de la Grece', he exclaims,followingwhichhe predictsyears of Greek slavery leading to the revolution and, finally,theglory of independence." In all, the similaritybetween the finalscenes of Le Sie'ge e Corinthend the end ofAct II ofLes Troyenss

too perfect ohave been accidental, especially since we know fromline in hisMemoirs hatBerlioz was familiarwith theearlier opera.'2We are left, hen,with the inescapable conclusion thatBerlioz didnot actually invent this powerfulfinal scene, but rather that itsgeneral outline and even many of its particular details wereborrowed by him directly fromRossini's first French opera.

The extent of this plagiarism, however, is limited to thedramatic plan of the scene in question. Not surprisingly,the

1D)avid Cairns suggeststhat Berlioz may have derived Cassandra's predictionindirectlyfromAnchises's statement (Aeneid. ii. 182-5) that 'Cassandra alone foretoldour

destinv ... She prophesied Hesperia anidItalv were destined to be our nation' ('Berlioz and'Virgil:a Consideration of"Les 'T'rovens" as a Virgilian Opera', ProceedingsftheRoyalMusicalAssociation, xcv (1968-9), 97-110). But all such prediction scenes are really just acontinuation of one aspect of the old French operatic tradition-in this case that of theapotheosis finale, n which a dying hero or heroine is alloWed to see the futureofhis countrv(see Patrick J.Smith. The TenthMuse: a Historical tudy ftheOperaLibretto, ew York, 1975,p. 152). It thereforebecomes almost impossible to sav with certaintvwho borrowed fromwhom in the case of such parallel scenies.

2"It was really Rossini, in TheSiegeofCorinth, ho first ntroduced noisv orchestrationinto Fr-ance' (Memoirs,p. 481).

315








musical structureof Berlioz's scene differsmarkedlyfromthat ofRossini. In typical Italian fashionthe latter concentratesprimarilyon solo singing, accompanying Pamyra's arias with incidentalchoral interjectionsfromher compatriots.The whole of Berlioz's

musical plan, on theotherhand, involvesa moreequal partnershipbetween the chorus of Trojan women and their suicidal leader.Both dramaticallyand musicallythisresults n a more effectivendinteresting inale. In short,Berlioz was not borrowingfromRossiniout of any special admiration for his work. On the contrary,Berlioz's comments on Rossini were nearly always critical anddisparaging. In 1839, for instance, he wrote to Ludwig Rellstabsaying that 'with the exception ofopera buffa, hemodern Italianschool, beginningwith Rossini, is odious to me'.'3 Of all Rossini's

operas Berlioz seems to have liked Guillaume ell best, but even inthat work he was favourably impressed by only a handful ofnumbers. Similarly, Le Sie'gedrew mixed reviews fromBerlioz'spen. Writing n Le Renovateur22 December 1835) he admittedthatRossini's opera had 'received a brilliant success thanks to somemagnificent horuses, to the brilliantand animated playing oftheorchestraand to the combined talentsoftheprincipal singers'.Butonly a fewmonths later in Le Journal es debats 23 July 1836) hepredicted that the opera would prove incapable of a sustainedrevival because of the 'inequalities of the music . . . and theconstant vacuity [nullite] f the piece'. It was, in his opinion, 'awork in which the most noble inspirationsare mixed with pieceswritten n a styleunworthy fthe author ofGuillaume ell. .. .' Inthe lightof such reaction to Rossini in general, and to Le Siege n

particular, one must wonder whyBerlioz turnedin that directionwhen casting about fora solutionto his own operatic problems. Inthe absence of any concrete evidence, that question cannot be

answered with certainty,but one suspects that borrowingfrom

Rossini was simply the most expedient thing to do. Berlioz'sextensiveexposure tooperas ofall kinds (thanksmainlyto hisworkas a journalist) broughthim into contactwithLe Siegeearly in hiscareer. By 1858 the opera had been out of the repertory orsomefourteenyears," butBerlioz apparentlyremembered t well enoughto recognize that the solution to his problem of how to dispose ofCassandra lay in the fortuitousparallels that existed betweenRossini's heroine and his own.

Overall, then,theeffortsf Berlioz as librettist orhis own operareveal much about his attitudes toward the shaping of musicdrama. His creationofthecharacterofCassandra constitutes nlyone ofseveral modifications hathe made in his Virgilian source inorder to bring an epic narrative to the operatic stage. But thatnartilllr mnrlificitinn noints un one of the basic naradoxes of

"'HectorBerlioz, Correspondanceenirale,i, ed. Fr6d6ricRobert,Paris, 1975, p. 433.l' AlfredLoeenberg, Annals f Opera, nd edn., Geneva, 1955, i. 669.

316








Berlioz's operatic style n Les Troyens-namely, he irreconcilabilityof his need, on the one hand, to break away from traditionaloperatic formsand restrictions n order to establish a new openstructure what he called Shakespearean form)withhis inabilityordisinclination,on the otherhand, to freehimselffrom ome ofthemost common operatic traditions.This paradox results n an operathat is at once boldly original in its dramatic structure andcuriouslyold-fashioned in some of its details. Cassandra is one ofthose details-a traditional bit ofFrenchgrand opera thatBerliozcould not avoid for the simple reason that no ordinary Parisianaudience of around 1860 could rationallyhave been expected totoleratean opera inwhichthe heroinedid not make herappearanceon stage until the third act. Even Berlioz, the great musicaliconoclast, did not dare risk (and, forthatmatter,probably nevereven considered the possibility of) such an affront to publicexpectations and operatic norms.He had to have a leading femalerole forthose first wo acts. But Cassandra is more than just theproduct ofconventional necessity. The emergenceofher characteralso demonstrates that Berlioz's operatic technique hinges on theavailability of specific kinds of characters that lend themselves tomusical expansion along strongly motional and sharplycontrast-ing lines ofdevelopment. In the

character ofCassandra, weak as itis in the Aeneid,Berlioz saw the potential forthe kind of highlycharged emotional situations that best fit his unique musicalapproach to opera.

Finally, the discovery that Berlioz did not really invent thatstrikingly ffectivegroup suicide scene that ends Act II of LesTroyens rovides a new perspective on his attitudes to borrowedmaterial. It has long been known, of course, that he borrowedmelodies fromhis own early compositions forre-use in later ones,"5

but the unabashed borrowing of another librettist's dramaticsituations is somethingwe have not seen before.Furthermore, hiskind of borrowing from the past establishes yet another linkbetween Berlioz and his immediate predecessors at the Opera.

This brief ook at some ofthe nfluences hatcame tobear on themoulding of ust one operatic character clearly reveals Berlioz asvery much a part of the French operatic tradition. He was notaltogether a musical Attila the Hun (as he once describedhimself'6),standing apart fromhis colleagues and ravaging the

world with deliberately bizarre and unperformableoperas. Anycomprehensivedefinition fhis operatic technique and evaluationofhis contributionsto that genremust take into considerationnotonlyhis manifoldcreativity nd originality ut also thesignificancennrl exvtent of' hi;q leent-l"di"ri -iinrn" f1vicrv 17

See Hugh Macdonald, 'Berlioz's Self-Borrowings',roceedings f theRoyal MusicalAssociation,xcii (1965-6), 27-44.

16 Berlioz,Correspondanceenerale, , ed. PierreCitron,Paris, 1972,p. 34.17 The preparation fthisarticlewas aided in partby a faculty esearchgrantfrom

SkidmoreCollege.

317

hi d l d d i 5


Berlioz, Cassandra, And the French Operatic Tradition

Documents

Transcript of Berlioz, Cassandra, And the French Operatic Tradition